Tracks clicks and loads the clicked website into a frame that allows visitors to quickly return to your website.

Very search engine friendly structure.

To add the link directory to your website go to your Site Administration, then click on the Blue content tab and click New Page. You will see the link directory in the pages list. If you have the old link directory you will need to add the new link directory in order apply the update to your website.

Like any major improvement to a system, we will still be working on making the link directory even better over time thanks to feedback from our site owners.

Other updates released with our platform update today.

New basic XML site map support. This was added to address the many questions about submitting a site map to Google. Your site map URL will be http://YOURWEBSITE.COM/sitemap.xml

New Member Map Element. This is a new element that displays the members of your website on a Google powered map.

Miscellaneous Styling/Design Related Fixes

In Case you missed it

We have a few other updates to tell you about that were applied to the platform over the last 2 weeks.

This is a new live shout box element can be added to your site by going to your content builder then click on add elements/discussion elements then selecting the live Shout Box. The best part about the live shout box is functions like a mini chat room. The Live Shout Box displays the last 20 shouts from the past 10 hours. When shouts are made they will display the members picture next to there name and a link back to their profile page. We have a 5 second delay between each shout to prevent spamming and only site members can post in the shout box.

The new live shout box was released about a week ago and was tested directly on our Website owner community at http://my.spruz.com for several days before it's full release. Meet other site owners at our Platform community my.spruz.com.

New Forum/Discussion Moderation Improvements!

It just got a whole lot easier to add Moderators to your forums. We have done away with using the UID number to add a moderator. This was replaced with a much easier to use search box that auto completes as you fill out the display name for your member.

When you delete, lock, or move a topic the topic starter now gets a message when this action occurs. This way you can easily warn the member when they break your forum rules.

There where some minor fixes we applied to the shopping cart system as well, such as the department description now only shows on the first page of inventory results when viewing items in a department and a few misc styling adjustments.

As part of our business model we are always working on improvements, new features, usability adjustments, and new information that will help you grow a better community. If you see something that can be improved for the good of all then please tell us about it on the Spruz Support Community forums at my.spruz.com.

Are you currently using an overlay as part of your website design? If so then you will want to change your theme to one that does not use an overlay. On Friday August 14th we will disable current overlays on all sites. This will not remove any theme customization, only the overlay portion that may be on some themes.

Overlays were a method to apply a quick graphical overlay on top of a theme to give it a different look quickly. However the way they are designed prevents links under the overlay to be clickable, in addition with the flexiablity the platform offers in design overlays are no longer needed. There are many other reasons for this change, and while I am sure it will be missed by some this change is needed.

Before you worry, overlays are only in use by a small number of websites powered by our platform.

We have just released an update to add Message Broadcasting ability (Sending Emails to all site members at one time). This allows you to send a mass email to your website members.

The new email broadcasting is located in the Member Management in your website management/administration area in that is displayed when you hit the green community tab and is the button called Email Broadcast above your member list.

This new feature is currently limited to our members that have our Pro upgrade plan, and allows you to send 1 email broadcast every 7 days.

As with anything new, we will continue to make improvements to it. Right now we want to carefully manage how email campaigns are sent so that we can stay clear of blacklists so that your emails are delivered to your website members when you send to them. Make sure you add this and all email broadcasts to your trusted lists in your favorite mail client this but one small part that helps us build a better email reputation.

This new feature has been added thanks to our a new mail server we brought online. We want to work hard to build our mail server reputation so that we can have good mail deliverability for everyone. Click here for more info on how mail reputation works. Giving the ability to mass mail is no easy task and for us will have a bit of overhead so that is why we do not offer this feature to everyone, and we have waited until now to release this type of feature.

We know this was a highly requested feature for sometime and now it is here, so enjoy!

We are currently seeking people to help us test our new member profile system that is launching soon. This will be to help test front end profile capabilities, including how member activity works, friends, and so on. We are seeking people that can provide feedback and help us identify bugs and other problems.

If you would like to take part in this and get an early peek at some new features please email grow@spruz.com, subject must say Profile Tester and your email should include your Spruz email address, your geographic location and some brief details about what qualifies you to help. Once selected we will reply to you with an website you will join to begin testing these features and we will be required not to talk or comment about the new member profile features outside the Member Profile beta community.

We will be selecting people to start testing early next week. We look forward to hearing from you.